26. 4. THE FUTURE NOT INTO PRESENT: THE 141,000

Jew nor Gentile (as such) in it (Gal. iii. 28; v. 6; vi. 15. Col. iii. 11).

If we, therefore, join together what God has thus kept distinct, we must get error instead of truth.

Besides, what do we gain by this disobedience to 2 Tim. ii. 15? Where does our advantage come in, by thrusting the Church of God in everywhere, whether the Scripture speaks of Israel or the Gentiles, or the Cherubim, or the Twenty-four Elders, the Bride, Zion, and the New Jerusalem, and everything else? How much must be lost to us of what God would teach us about these various subjects of revelation.

Here, then, we have another example as to our not reading what is still future into this present Dispensation. We need not put the Church of God among those who are numbered of the twelve Tribes of Israel, nor into the innumerable Gentile multitude. A time is coming when the nations will "learn righteousness," not by the grace of God, but by the judgments of God; not by the preaching of the Gospel, but by the proclamations of wrath. "O LORD . . . when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness" (Isa. xxvi. 9). These are the learners who will make up this "great multitude which no man can number." Many may be of that number who will be left behind when the members of the "One Body" shall have been received up in glory. Many who have been members of churches, but not members of the Church of God. Many who have been labouring at trying to make a unity of the Body, instead of "endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit." They will then learn from the judgments of God what they failed to learn from the grace of God; and they will pass through and come out of the Great Tribulation and stand before the throne of God.

Those who believe they will pass through the Great Tribulation must not be surprised if God deals with them "according to their faith"!

(c) Sundry Prophecies relating to the Future Dispensation are interpreted of the Present, to the loss of coherency in the Word, and the gain of perplexity in the mind; to say nothing of the evils produced by perverting, and even

"wresting" certain Scriptures from their own specific teaching.

"The heathen for thine inheritance."—How often, for example, have we all heard Ps. ii. 8 quoted on the platforms of missionary meetings:—

"Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance,

And the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession."

This promise to Christ, as Messiah, is quoted, as though it was to be fulfilled by the preaching of the Gospel of the grace of God in this present Dispensation; whereas, the very next verse, if quoted with it, would make such an interpretation, or even application, impossible; for it would show us exactly how that promise is going to be made good; and that it will be by judgment, not by grace.

"Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron;

Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel."

When missionaries go forth equipped with a sceptre of iron, instead of the gospel of peace, we may regard such an application as being consistent.

This, really, comes under another head,¹ which we propose to consider below, viz., the Importance of the Context; and the evils which are brought in by wresting any passage from its context. The context of Ps. ii. 8, when read with verse 9, shows decisively what the true interpretation of verse 8 should be; and the scope of the whole Psalm would be seen to confirm it.

"The mountain of the Lord's house."—Isa. ii. is another example. We must all have heard verse 2 quoted again and again of the Church of God:—

"And it shall come to pass in the last days,

That the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established in the top of the mountains,

And shall be exalted above the hills;

And all nations shall flow unto it," etc.

¹ See under Canon IV. in Part II.

This is supposed to teach the future extension of the Church of God, and its universal blessing to the nations; and this, in spite of the many passages in the Epistles which plainly tell us of the dark and terrible character of the last days of the Church on earth: evil men waxing worse and worse, scoffers walking after their own lusts, the departure of many from the faith, turning away their ears from the truth, and the turning them unto fables, and all this culminating in "the apostasy" and the revelation of Antichrist (1 Tim. iv. 2 Tim. iv. 2 Thess. ii. 2 Peter iii., etc.)

But beside all this, the immediate context of Isa. ii. 2 should have made such an interpretation (or even, application) impossible; for the previous verse distinctly states that it was "the word that Isaiah saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem," and not concerning the Church of God.

No application may be made of any Scripture that is not in harmony with what is revealed elsewhere. Such an application is forbidden by the subsequent teaching of the Epistles as to the last days of this Dispensation; while such an interpretation is forbidden by the context.

"Thy light is come."—Isa. lx. 1, 3, 11, 12 is another portion which is continually applied to the Church, and used to set forth the ultimate triumph of the Gospel, in order to the encouragement of missionary enterprise:

"Arise, shine for thy light is come,

And the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee" (Isa. lx. 1).

Whose light? And, Risen upon whom? Not the Church of God, but upon Jacob's seed, and his seed's seed (Isa. lix. 20) when "the Redeemer shall come to Zion."

So far from the Church being in this Scripture, verse 3 distinguishes Jew and Gentile: and Gal. iii. 27, 28 distinguishes the Church from both:

"And the Gentiles shall come to thy light,

And kings to the brightness of thy rising."

Here we see that the subject-matter is the Jew and the Gentile; while in the Church of God there is neither

See Canon X., below, Part II.

the one nor the other. The prophet is speaking of the Future Dispensation, after the Church shall have been "received up in Glory"; he is speaking of that moment in the Millennial Dispensation, when the Jew shall no longer be the tail, but the head of the nations; and when the Gentiles shall bring their wealth and their glory to Israel. This flowing of the nations for the aggrandizement of Israel is spoken of in other prophecies, and in such terms as to make even an application of them impossible; to say nothing of the interpretation. See Isa. lxi. 3-6, and Zech. xiv. 16-24, where it is distinctly stated that all this shall be when "the LORD shall be king over all the earth" (v. 9); when "Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited" (v. 11); and all this, not until Messiah's feet shall have stood "upon the Mount of Olives"; even that mount "which is before Jerusalem on the East" (v. 4).

(d) "The Day of the Lord" is the Day when the Lord shall rule the world in Judgment and Righteousness.

We shall see below, under the section which deals with the importance of first occurrences of words and expressions (Canon v.), that the one great outstanding fact that will characterize that day will be that man will be abased, and Jehovah exalted (Isa. ii. 11, 17). Whatever may be the judgments, or the means employed, the result will be that the day of man's activities will come to an end, and Jehovah will begin to work: and truly, our hearts begin to say even now:

"It is time for Thee, LORD, to work:

For they have made void Thy law" (Ps. cxix. 126).

In this day, and in all previous Dispensations, judgment and rule and power in the earth have been committed unto man. It is called "Man's Day" in 1 Cor. iv. 3, where it is translated "man's judgment" (Margin, "Greek, day"). Though the Greek word is "day" it is thus beautifully translated; for, this is the day when man is judging, nationally and individually. Nationally he is a failure; for, the end of nearly six thousand years finds good government to be the great want of the age, and the great problem of the nations. Individually, man is a worker of untold evils, and this in the Church as well

5. FUTURE EVENTS: THE DIFFERENT ADVENTS as in the world, or even more so. For, the judgment of others instead of himself seems to be his one great object, while the wreckage of broken hearts and ruined lives testifies to the extent of the evils he has wrought.

Yes, this is "man's day." But, "the Lord's Day" is coming,¹ and John sees it laid out in vision before him, when by the Spirit he was shown its course and its end (Rev. i. 10).²

This is the day that concerns the world, and it will suddenly overtake it, at the moment when "peace, peace" shall be its cry, and "safety" its creed.

But we must not read that future Day into the present hope of the Church of God, to the destruction of that hope, and the loss of our peace, and the extinction of our joy. For the promise to us is given in no uncertain sound: "that day shall not overtake you as a thief." The reason is, because we are "not in darkness" concerning it; we have the prophetic word which is a light in this darkness (2 Pet. i. 19); and, for that very reason we are called "the children of the light, and the children of the day" (1 Thess. v. 1—5).

By rightly dividing the Word of truth we distinguish between Man's day and the Lord's day; and also between the Lord's day and "the day of Christ" (Phil. i. 6; ii. 16), when He who has begun the good work in us will perfect it; and we shall be with Christ; and rejoice to find that we "have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain."

5. One Part of THE FUTURE not necessarily to be read into another part of the Future.

There are Advents, and Resurrections, and Judgments which are all still future, and they must be rightly divided the one from the other, respectively, if we would learn, and know the truth respecting them.

(a) *The Advents.*—There is the "Parousia," or Presence of Christ, which is the subject of the earlier Pauline Epistles, involving the Rapture of living saints and the dead in Christ (1 Thess. iv.), and "our gathering

¹ *Four Prophetic Periods*, by the same author and publisher.

² See below, p. 198. Also a pamphlet on *The Lord's Day: Is it a Day of the Week, or the Day of the Lord?* by the same author and publisher.

together unto Him" (2 Thess. ii. 1) before His Advent in judgment glory connected with "the Day of the Lord" (Isa. ii. 11, 17. 1 Thess. v. 2).

These two are to be carefully and rightly divided.

The Parousia will be "our gathering unto" Christ, while the Advent will be the gathering of Israel to their Messiah and their Land (Gen. xlix. 10. Isa. xl. 11; xliii. 5; liv. 7. Jer. xxix. 14; xxxi. 10; xxxii. 37. Ezek. xx. 34, 41; xxxiv. 12—14, &c.).

The Church of God has nothing to do with the Day of the Lord. That day will overtake the world as a thief in the night (1 Thess. v. 2).

But the Church of God is distinctly told that "that day shall not overtake you as a thief" (v. 4).

The Church is assured that it will be at "rest . . . WHEN the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God" (2 Thess. i. 7, 8). These will "be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power WHEN HE SHALL HAVE COME¹ to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe" (vv. 9, 10). There are two marks of time "WHEN" in 2 Thess. i. 7 and 10; but they are not expressed in the same way in the Greek.² The first means "at"; the second means "when."

Verse 7 relates to the Revelation of Christ to His enemies; verse 10 relates to the glorification of Christ with His saints.

The Saints will be *at rest* AT His revelation (verse 7).

And WHEN He is revealed, He will have already come and have been glorified with His saints (v. 10).

Scripture can hardly be clearer than this.

In order that there may be no mistake, the same fact is put in two ways: *first*, the "rest" which we shall have AT His Advent (His revelation in Judgment); and, *second*, the fact that He shall have already given us this rest, WHEN He is revealed.

¹ Greek. *ἴσῳ (elthē)*, 2nd aorist Tense subjunctive Mood, as in Luke xvii. 10, 1 Cor. xv. 24, where it is so translated. Compare Matt. xxi. 40. Mark viii. 38; x. 23. John iv. 25; xvi. 13. Acts xxiii. 35. Rom. xi. 27.

² In verse 7 it is *ἐν τῇ ἀποκαλύπτει (κατὰ ἀποκαλύπτει)*, AT THE APOCALYPSE, or *revelation* (as in the R.V.). In verse 10 it is *ἐν τῇ ἀποκαλύπτει*, WHEN HE SHALL HAVE COME to be glorified.